Upon hearing Lucifer's confusion, Saul extended his hand to halt him, with the intention of delaying the question for a later date.

"This job is to rescue someone. A bit illegal yes, but not enough that it is completely illegal. You won't get paid by the merc company to do it though, the man will pay you."

So they're not getting paid by doing this job. The person they are rescuing would pay them, huh? If that's the case then they should know about the money, how much the person is willing to reward them but asking the question outright would make it seem he was only in this for the money, so he asked this instead:

"Who is this person?"

"Matsunaga Fuji. Invented a medicine and was selling it cheaper than health&wealth.co which is a branch of the Kusonoki conglomerate. So, they had their guys take him away. His daughter is actually a friend of mine, she personally asked for this."

The words "daughter" and "friend" piqued his interest. If they have a personal relationship then the team might not be as money-oriented as he had thought.

"How much is the girl willing to pay for Fujis's safe return? I'm not trying to be greedy here but i just want to know for how much I'll be risking my life."

Saul's shoulders slumped a little, then he shrugged his shoulder in a 'what can you do' manner, then said:

"I'm not sure how much she'll pay."

"Then I'm sorr—"

Saul held up a hand to interrupt Lucifer, then continued:

"Wait a minute, I wasn't finished. I don't know how much she's willing to pay, but she's the daughter of a rich guy. I can assure you that she'll pay at least five million. It's much much higher than you'll get doing any gig at your rank."

It was clear that this was supposed to be a selling point for the job, but that was completely unnecessary. A daughter of a rich person would obviously have deep pockets, especially since she has the guts to ask mercenaries to rescue her father, so five million yen really wasn't much to her. A pity.

However, five million is still five million, and while it might not be much to her, it certainly would be to him.

"Five million yen, huh…I'm interested."

"Fantastic!"

Saul grinned in success.

"Then you'll agree to do this?"

"Of course, but I have one condition."

Saul's face fell a little at the word 'condition'.

"Well, what's your condition….?"

"I need to know all the details of this job before committing."

Saul thought for a moment, and then nodded, his face serious.

"That's fair enough."

Saul gave his colleagues a look, and everyone around the table nodded.

Their eyes were now on Hirata. As the one who was responsible for information, he was the one who had to answer questions.

Hirata nodded, then spoke:

"What would you like to know?"

"Who are our enemies, how many will there be, what weapons do they have, where are they, where is the person we are supposed to rescue?"

"Our enemies…" Hirata thought for a moment. "They are most likely men hired by the Kusunoki Conglomerate to serve as security or security guards. The person who is holding Matsunaga Fuji hostage most likely has at least five guards in the room at all times. As for weapons, they are all military grade weapons. There should be about twenty men there in total. As for the location of those enemies and the location of Matsunaga-san. I don't know the former but I know the latter, he's being held in an abandoned factory approximately fifty kilometers from here."

"I see…"

His tone was level, but Lucifer couldn't hide his surprise. A military-grade weapon, twenty enemies and an abandoned factory, he was getting a bit excited. It was like doing side quests after completing the main story in an rpg.

"Can you tell me a bit more about the factory? Like the security, cameras, the layout, the number of floors, etcetera?"

Hirata nodded and spoke calmly:

"Yes, I can. The factory is made of reinforced concrete and has an area total of approximately 3,630 square meters. There's a total of 20 security cameras set around the perimeter of the factory. The entire space is monitored by cameras except for the room which our target is being held in. That room has no cameras. The factory has three floors: the basement, first floor and second floor."

Lucifer closed his eyes, and silently repeated the information in his head.

Security cameras, three-story factory. Reinforced concrete, three floors, 20 enemies, three floors- wait! Three floors?!

"Three floors? What's on the first and second floor?"

Saul answered this question:

"The first floor is mainly used for storage. There might be a few guards on it, but it shouldn't be many. The second floor is where the security and control station is, so that's where the majority of the security and surveillance equipment is. I alongside luna can hack all security and surveillance equipment remotely for a while so that should give you all a little window to get him out of there."

He nodded appreciatively and spoke:

"Thank you for sharing these details. Now I should ask one last question, what are the abilities of the enemies? This can give us a better picture of how difficult the job will be."

"Not much in terms of cyberware, just the general stuff."

Lucifer was about to speak up again asking what he meant by the general stuff but he decided against it and nodded.

"I see. So, what is our plan going to be?"

Saul spoke up and said:

"Your question is a good one. We've discussed this already before you came and, as all of us agreed, the best course of action would be to go in through the basement and move upward to the third floor, which is where Fuji is being held."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Luna will control all the cameras and the surveillance equipment via hacking, and there will be a few minutes where the cameras are down and you'll have to get through the first and second floors before they figure out that they've been hacked. Any questions?"

"Is killing allowed?"

"Well, no. If the situation demands for it, go ahead but don't kill needlessly."

"Understood. Are there any more details that I should know about the job and the mission we are taking?"

Saul thought for a moment, then he said:

"You should be aware we are going through the radiated forest for better cover."

"And what exactly lives there?"

Aoi suddenly spoke up:

"Like massive Leeches and Giant Beetles, but the Hanging Spiders which spit webs at you from the trees and the Forest Worms which maul you from the ground with their huge jaws are harder to handle. I hate those worms, whichever bastard let them free from a lab is going to rot in hell."

No wonder.

A creep ran up Lucifer's spine.

He hated bugs.

"We have to go through the forest?"

"No, since it's dangerous we are going to take a dirt path next to the forest, it's less dangerous."

Lucifer let out a silent sigh of relief that he didn't know he was holding in going through a radiated forest filled with mutated bugs was not something he enjoyed. He could handle a few bullets, or knives, but bugs and giant worms was a whole other story.

"Any other dangerous stuff I should know of or is that all?"

"We're likely to encounter some other creatures which were let loose into the wild and the wolves they raise. As for other creature's, there haven't been any strong ones sighted around this area. The most dangerous one's we might encounter on the plains are probably those mutated humanoid guys who've made a tribe near a lake."

That made Lucifer's heart skip a beat. "Mutated humanoid…" he repeated in a low voice.

What he was envisioning in his mind's eye was creatures that looked like zombies with grotesque arms that had multiple joints and long fingers with long fingernails that looked like they could rip a human apart effortlessly.

"How many of them are there?"

"Around 800 in their tribe, they're like monkey's but dumber and with some more strength. They were released in the wild 40 ish years ago." Saul answered.

"And how do they look like?"

"Ugly as hell." Saul said bluntly. "They have very dark skin and almost have no hair. They're all naked and run around on the plains. We'll have to be careful of them, they're not particularly strong individually, but in a pack, they' can be a headache. Nothing a good bullet to the brain can't fix thought."

Lucifer smiled internally, atleast they weren't monster's. He was going to treat them as such though. He wondered why the government hadn't killed them already but he may seem even more stupider if he asked that so he kept that to himself as well.

"Okay," Lucifer said, satisfied with all the information they provided.

"That's how it is, Sato-san. How about it? Want to lend us a hand?"

"…Mm. Then, I'll be in your care…"

Saul then looked around and shouted, "does anybody have any problems with this?"

No one spoke up.

Lucifer pretended to think for a while before nodding his head in agreement.

"I have no problems with that arrangement. Then, let us fight shoulder to shoulder. Also, since we're working together, I guess I should let everyone see my true face."

Everyone around the table perked up when they heard this. The tension in the room rose a little.

Saul was the first to speak.

"Are you sure? Just because we'll be working together doesn't necessarily mean we have to know your true identity."

Lucifer nodded and said:

"Trust is paramount to any successful mission. If we wish to do this successfully, we should all know each other. Besides, it doesn't hurt."

Saul thought for a moment,

"Alright, then go ahead."

With that, Lucifer removed his helmet. The four people before him seemed

Quite surprised by what they saw.

"…Black eyes and hair like an average Japanese, so he couldn't have been a foreigner.

"He's older than I thought, he's already an uncle."

"Hey, that's rude!"

"A man on par with a cyborg should be around that age."

"Sir's ox's pretty amazing too."

Lucifer keen ears picked up their whispered words, with the exception of Saul's.

Being called an uncle made Lucifer feel uncomfortable, but it probably couldn't be helped that he was an uncle in the eyes of these youngsters. If one was an adult by the age of eighteen, then Lucifer was definitely an uncle to them even though he was only 20. His parents used to say he looked older than his age so it might have something to do with that.

"I'll be covering my face up after showing it to you."

With that, Lucifer put his helmet back on again. After that, he smiled in satisfaction under his helmet. This was because Lucifer had enchanted himself with an illusion — although it was a low tier type, which would be seen through if touched. He also had to alter his appearance to match how he looked when he was a human instead of how he looked now.

"Since we'll be fighting and hunting together, it would probably be good to get questions out of the way at this point. Do you have anything to ask me?"

"Me!"

A hand shot up toward the ceiling after Lucifer asked his question. That hand belonged to Nomi.

After making sure that nobody else was asking a question other than himself, Nomi cheerfully asked ox:

"What kind of relationship do you two have!"

A question Lucifer should have seen coming. He had expected that someone would ask him about the nature of his and Ox's relationship but hearing it out loud made Lucifer feel a bit uneasy.

Thankfully, the helmet covered up his expression.

He thought about how he should answer and decided that a half truth would be the best option.

"He is my companion."

"What kind of a companion?" Nomi asked. "Are you friends? Or siblings? Or lover's-"

"Companion." Lucifer interrupted. "We don't have a specific title. We're more like partners."

Nomi tilted her head. "So, are you two childhood friends?"

"No."

"Friends that you met in college?"

"No."

"Friends that you met outside?"

"No."

"Then how did you two meet?" Nomi was curious.

Lucifer took a moment to think about how to answer it, and then said:

"By chance."

"By chance?"

"Yes."

After Lucifer finished speaking, Nomi seemed a little disappointed but still nodded with a somewhat bitter smile.

"It would have been so romantic if you two were in a relationship."

Lucifer could only answer with an awkward cough, not knowing what to say to this girl's strange mind.

Aoi saw Lucifer's embarrassed behavior and chuckled a little.

"Nomi, don't say such weird things."

Nomi pouted unhappily and said with a frown:

"But two handsome guys together is the most romantic. You know when two handsome and perfect people fall in love, it's like a beautiful movie."

Lucifer suddenly felt the urge to slam his head into the table.

Nomi's words almost gave Lucifer a brain aneurysm. What kind of thoughts were going on in that girl's brain? He wanted to ask if any brain cells were rattling around inside that skull of her's, but he didn't have the heart to ask something like that.

He was saved by Saul who spoke up.

"Nomi," Saul said dryly. "That's not the point here. Please, if you will now?"

After Nomi, nobody seemed to have any questions and even if they did, they didn't ask.

"Now, I'll go through it once more. What I've done in the past is to proceed to an abondoned house around fourty kilometres away from the factory to set up a

Base of operations before venturing into the forest. The amount of time we'll spend depends on the weather, but it will be three days at the latest. In the past, it's been a couple of days on average." Saul said.

"Will we be walking there?" Lucifer asked.

"Ah, yes. You see a car would attract too much attention and the weather isn't really good for flying vehicles these days."

"Can we replenish our rations in that abandoned house?"

"Water should be fine, but food might be a problem."

"we can hunt."

Nomi said.

"I'll rather shit in my hands and clap than eat anything from those animals. Everyone can pack extra food or something."

Lucifer chuckled at Saul's response. It seemed that she wasn't fond of eating mutated wildlife.

He felt a little relieved by this since he, too, wasn't too fond of eating mutated wildlife.

He had eaten animals before, but it didn't taste good and it left an unpleasant aftertaste. Now, he couldn't imagine what animals nowadays tasted like.

"May I ask a few questions?"

After seeing Saul smile and nod in reply, Lucifer began with the first question.

"Why me? I've only arrived in this city by a train recently, and as such I have

No friends here, nor am I renowned in this area. That being the case, why did you

Ask for me?"

Lucifer's gaze was keen under his helmet.

He did not know why Saul had chosen him specifically.

Lucifer studied Saul closely.

Could it be that he was overthinking this? Just as Lucifer was beginning to get suspicious, Saul replied:

"ah, you see, the mercs i used to team up with in the past have left Neo-Tokyo for another city.

That's why I was looking for new mercenaries. Also, actually… I heard about what happened in the hotel from one of its guests."

"What happened in the hotel?"

"Yes, I heard that someone effortlessly threw an mercenary one rank higher than himself…"

"I see…"

Lucifer had planned to use a show of strength to increase his renown. Had this team taken the bait? Once more, as suspicion welled up in Lucifer. Saul smiled and pointed to the star on Lucifer's breastplate.

"Plus, black star mercenaries are cheaper, right? Hopefully we'll get along for a while yet."

"Haha, I do hope so."

Lucifer' understood how it was like to hire an untested rookie. He slowly felt himself lowering his guard, but there was one thing that worried him. If that really happened—

As Lucifer thought about this, the other were asking questions one by one about the strategy and stuff. After there were no more questions, Saul announced:

"Then, let's move out once we're ready!"

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